Category: Ethics in Government

By Posted on Posted in Ethics in Government

President Obama came into office following a long and thorough process of checking people out, and with a particular (and very welcome) screen for ethics issues. Yet here it is, just two weeks into this new presidency, and there have been at least five nominees who’ve either raised ethics eyebrows or withdrawn entirely: Bill Richardson, Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer, Timothy Geithner, and William J. Lynn III among them. And there are several others whose close ties to the industries they’re supposed to regulate could make people more than a little nervous.

What is refreshing, at least, is Obama’s willingness to stand up and say that he “screwed up.” After eight years of a president who refused to take responsibility for his actions, who could not come up with a single action when asked point-blank what his mistakes were–even while he was digging the country into several concurrent very deep holes–that is a good thing indeed.

This is not the rampant and blatant corruption and favoritism of the Bush presidency, or even the somewhat shady dealings under Clinton. But still, it does raise questions–lots of questions. And the biggest question in my mind is whether the flaws are inherent in the system. Do we need such wide restructuring that the revolving door is bolted shut? And if we do, how do we find people with the competencies needed to run these huge agencies?

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By Posted on Posted in Ethics in Government Tagged with ,

Not since Clarence Thomas called Anita Hill’s harassment allegations “a legal lynching” have I heard such disgusting self-aggrandizement as came out of the mouth of Gov. Rod Blagojevich. He actually has the chutzpah to compare himself to Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi.

These three heroes of mine have only one thing in common with Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi: They all understood how to get attention in the media; they were marketers. Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi is taking his roadshow to major media when he ought to be in Springfield, Illinois, at his impeachment trial.

Those three giants of social justice went to jail for the rightness of their cause. If Blagojevich goes to jail, it will be because he got greedy, and got caught. I cannot imagine King, Gandhi, or Mandela selling a senate seat to the highest bidder.

Oh, and if you want a relatively recent recap of the Thomas confirmation circus, look no further than this splendid diatribe by Frank Rich in the New York Times, October 7, 2007. It would be a violation of copyright for me to quote the whole thing, but I’ll give you a little taste–and the link:

Pity Clarence Thomas. Done in by what he calls “left-wing zealots draped in flowing sanctimony” — as he describes anyone who challenged his elevation to the court — he still claims to have suffered as much as African-Americans once victimized by “bigots in white robes.” Since kicking off his book tour on “60 Minutes” last Sunday, he has been whining all the way to the bank

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By Posted on Posted in Ethics in Government, Transparency vs. Secrecy Tagged with ,

For years, I’ve been calling for openness and transparency (in business and in government–in this blog, in my award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit, in the Business Ethics Pledge, and elsewhere. Yet most businesses AND most government entities shroud themselves in secrecy, bury attempts at discourse, and give the impression of pulling the wool over the public eye.

This makes the Obama team’s high degree of transparency and active solicitation of public input (at the change.org website, through the in-person strategy sessions it organized, etc.) even more remarkable.

Consider this widely reported quote yesterday from an Associated Press story on Obama’s proposed tax cut by Steven R. Hurst:

At his meeting with bipartisan leaders of Congress, Obama said he would make his stimulus proposal available on the Internet, with a Google-like search function to show each proposed project or program, by congressional district, according to three people who attended.

Wow!

I find this especially interesting coming not from some kind of radical but from a mainline, centrist politician, many of whose policy platforms (especially in foreign affairs) are far more conservative than mine.

Change is about both form and substance. Obama is doing really well on the form so far; let’s hope he follows through into the substance.

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By Posted on Posted in Business Ethics, Ethics in Government, People Helping People, Politics

Calling it the worst fraud in history (far worse than Enron), Democracy Now released the shocking news that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had known there were serious problems around Bernard Madoff for nine years!

Are you as sick and tired of this as I am? Enron fell apart in 2001. Michael Milken was indicted in 1989–that’s almost 20 years ago! And now we find out that Madoff, former head of NASDAQ, took the whole financial system for an astonishing $50 billion, suckering investors in with the promise of outrageously good yields and wiping out numerous good charities–the same week we find out Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich actually had the chutzpah to try to sell Obama’s vacant Senate seat.

Have we learned NOTHING since the Milken days?

If you’re all riled up about business scandals, about banks and industrialists coming to Washington to coax billions of our tax dollars out of the government while doing nothing either to change the over-lavish lifestyles or to pump credit back into the system, if you think these companies should get a clue before they come looking for a handout and the government should get a clue before it hands out our money without any oversight, if you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired–there are a few things you can do. They’re easy, they take almost no time, and they could make a difference.

First, tell Obama’s transition team what you want to see the next administration accomplish. It’s the first time I can remember a newly elected president making a conscious and thorough effort to tap the wisdom of the general public.

Second, sign the Business Ethics Pledge and help create a climate where the Milkens, Madoffs, Kenneth Lays, and Blagojeviches of the future won’t find anyone to listen to their crooked Ponzi schemes and extortionate rackets.

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By Posted on Posted in Business Ethics, Ethics in Government

Four years after launching the Business Ethics Pledge campaign, and five years after publishing my book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, that shows that ethical businesses can more easily succeed, the goal of making future Enron scandals unthinkable seems very distant this week. One dismal news story after another!

A little sampling of the depressing headlines:

Democratic Governor Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, arrested on corruption charges, manages to paint himself as more venal and small-minded, and more focused on personal gain, than even Richard Nixon. Read more »

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By Posted on Posted in Ethics in Government, People Helping People, Politics

Nelson Mandela was the first black president of South Africa, who came to power after decades of an oppressive apartheid regime that enforced a horrible climate on its people of color–the vast majority of its population. Mandela himself was imprisoned for 27 years.

When Mandela and the African National Congress came to power, it would have been easy to conduct Nuremberg-style trials and punish the transgressors. But instead, South Africa established an official Truth and Reconciliation Commission; he handled the need to change with love. The Commission thoroughly investigated many of the old regime’s criminals, but did not punish them–instead using the trials to create healing rather than division.

While it’s easy to imagine taking a good deal of satisfaction from seeing the rogues of our rogue state–Bush, Rumsfeld, Gonzales…and especially Rove and Cheney–on trial and facing long prison terms, from the point of view of healing the country and actually accomplishing a progressive agenda in these already-difficult times, it may make sense to have the trials but have them under the banner of truth and reconciliation, and let their consciences (such as they are) or the Higher Power they call claim to believe in, be the ones to punish them.

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By Posted on Posted in Ethics in Government, Ethics-International Tagged with , ,

From liberal Democrat State Senator Dianne Wilkerson of Massachusetts to Chen Shui-bian, the former President of Taiwan, there’s been another spate of politicians caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Some of these people, like Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, have had positions of public trust for decades.

Isn’t it time we looked at this as a society? Not just in the U.S., but around the world. There’s got to be a way to govern that doesn’t put so much temptation in front of our politicians to abuse their trust and their power.

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By Posted on Posted in Ethics in Government, Politics, Uncategorized
  • Good summary of all the race-baiting, commie-baiting, Muslim-baiting McCarthyistic crap coming out of many corners of the McCain campaign, most of it apparently condoned by both McCain and Palin: at least 13 separate incidents, including some real nasties, like the woman who made up the story that she was mugged and disfigured for supporting McCain and the robocalls to Jewish voters in Pennsylvania warning of another holocaust if Obama is elected (that one actually did get disavowed, but McCain personally endorsed a sleazy brochure that tried to tie Obama to 9/11). And several more dirty tricks, many targeting black voters, listed here.
  • Front-page story in The Times of London (owned by Rupert Murdoch, but still a reputable paper) has several Vietnamese involved in McCain’s capture/rescue and imprisonment denying that he was ever tortured–in separate interviews. American mainstream media has apparently been ignoring this story, and I’m not convinced it’s true, but you’d think the press would want to investigate, since the torture story has been the basis for his entire career. The closest I could find to corroboration was this anonymous report that claims to be from a fellow POW

    • According to a fellow POW, John McCain sustained some injures after ejecting over North Vietnam, but was never tortured or mistreated. Speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of what the new Republican Nazi Party might do to him and his family, he said, “Hell, they didn’t have to torture McCain. He talked incessantly. We didn’t nickname him “Songbird” because he was cute or had a pleasant voice…”

    I’ve known McCain for years and while he’s a lot of things, a straight talker he is not. Even though I was shot down twice in Vietnam, I wasn’t captured. The records show that most pilots did their very best to avoid being captured, and those who were, carried out their orders according the United States Military Code of Conduct, especially Article III. There is no record of John McCain trying to escape or aiding others in their attempt to escape. I also know that like me, McCain is one sick old man. He’s eaten up with PTSD and hate, and it’s not the North Vietnamese, North Koreans or even the Taliban he hates. He hates Americans for leaving him to rot in a POW camp. Evidently, the Pentagon didn’t believe McCain warranted being rescued to the degree that McCain believed.

  • McCain’s hypocrisy shows up on just about every issue. As one example, how about John McCain pushing Reagan to meet with terrorists without preconditions.

    In 1987, John McCain cast several votes in an attempt to force the Reagan administration to meet with RENAMO1, a guerrilla organization in Mozambique that State Department officials at the time described as a “terrorist group,” 2 without requiring that the group meet any preconditions.

    Oh, and how about Palin’s ties to a terrorist separatist group in Alaska–much less tenuous than Obama’s ties to Ayers?

  • The ridiculous and desperate attempt to pin vote fraud charges on Acorn, and by implication, Obama–while the Republicans continue the biggest disenfranchisement campaign in US history

    This is only the tip of the iceberg. I could chronicle this stuff all night. “Mr. Straight Talk” has some serious explaining–and apologizing–to do.

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    By Posted on Posted in Ethics in Government

    Outrageous! Sarah Palin thinks putting her daughters up at the Ritz-Carlton, in their own room (one room for two daughters), is an appropriate use of taxpayer money! A different time, when she shared a $709.29 per night hotel room overlooking New York’s Central Park for four nights.

    Another time she stayed five nights in order to give a single one-time speech. Associated Press reports repeated use of state money to fly her kids around on questionable “state business.”

    Here’s another incident mentioned in the AP story (and there are many others):

    a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

    This is the “maverick:” and “reformer” who stands for ethics? Yech!

    Oh, yes, and she lied to say they were on official business.

    I can smell the stench all the way in Massachusetts, 5000 miles away.

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